The building of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague

The Future of War Crime Trials in the Western Balkans

Join us for this important discussion on the future of criminal justice in the Western Balkans, with our key panellists:

Mr. Aleksandar Kontić, ICTY/MICT, who works for many years already on capacity building of the judicial systems in the countries of the Western Balkans

Mr. Mario Mažić, Director of Programs of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) Croatia, which brings together young human rights activists, jurists, journalists, students, authors, researchers and experts in ‘dealing with the past’ initiatives.

Mrs. Mirna Buljugić, Director of the Sarajevo office of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), a network of local non-governmental organisations promoting freedom of speech, human rights and democratic values.

The ICTY

Established in May 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has spent the last 24 years persecuting war crimes that took place in the violent conflicts in the Balkans during the 1990s. The ICTY has indicted 161 persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law. Many more intermediate- and lower-ranking cases have, over the years, been handed over to the local and national courts of the different countries of the Western Balkans, and are still pending.

The closure of the ICTY is scheduled for 31 December 2017. But these last weeks of the ICTY are far from quiet or boring. On November 22, Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment. On November 29, in the case of Prlic et al., the first-instance verdicts against six Bosnian Croats were upheld. One of the six, Slobodan Praljak, committed suicide, drinking poison in the ICTY Courtroom. Overwhelming majorities of Serbs criticised the Mladic verdict, whereas similar majorities Croats criticised the verdict in the ICTY case against the Bosnian Croats. It seems, that there is hardly any acceptance of the facts, as established by the ICTY. What does that imply for justice in the future?

The cases, still not finalised, are handed over to the MICT, Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals. And in the coming years, it will be up to the local and national courts of the Western Balkan countries to bring a successful end to the remaining war crime trials.

The closure of the ICTY at the end of this year raises important questions, namely:

How do we assess the work of the ICTY? To which extent did it bring recognition and justice to the victims, did it help pave the way for processes of improvement of inter-ethnic relations or even reconciliation?

What is the future of the war crime trials in the Western Balkans? Will impunity reign, or will war criminalsbe brought to justice in the local and national courts of the region? What are the possible roles and contributions for external actors (EU, international civil society organisations)?

Dealing with the Past, or Transitional Justice, is so much more than only criminal justice! It also relates to truth-finding, reparation, memory initiatives and structural reform (the principle of non-recurrence). Was there too much of an emphasis on the component of criminal justice? Do we need more initiatives on these other components, also to build a better societal and political basis for war crime trials?

It are these questions that will lead the discussion of the final Balkan Brief of 2017, held on Tuesday evening 12 December 2017, starting at 18:00 hrs, at the PAX office in Utrecht (St. Jacobsstraat 12, Utrecht)

The discussion will be led by Mr. Dion van den Berg, (senior policy advisor at PAX).

Header photograph provided courtesy of the ICTY

Previous editions

Balkanborrel 4 september 2017: Met het oog op morgen

By Puck le Roy

A place of remembrance. A robust civil society. Economic prospects. Reliable numbers of returnees. A dialogue. Economic prospects. Education. Justice. And maybe tourism? These were the answers of the attendees of the Balkan Brief of Monday 4 September when asked what a society needs in order to recover from a recent history of war and genocide. It soon became clear that education was almost unanimously considered the most important element. Education as a means to counter ethnonationalist narratives that paralyze society, and education as being intrinsically interlinked with other elements, such as a thriving civil society, economic prosperity, and an ongoing dialogue between perpetrators, victims, survivors, and the next generation.

The Balkan Brief started with a documentary on the Memorial Centre Srebrenica-Potocari in Bosnia and Herzegovina that, with the support of PAX and Herineringscentrum Kamp Westerbork, opened an exhibition on the genocide of Srebrenica in the former headquarters of Dutchbat – an example of how survivors of genocide can remember and deal with the past. The documentary sparked an inspiring discussion, which was led by the panellists Muhamed Durakovic (director of the Summer University Srebrenica (SUS)), Veerle Slegers (chairwoman of PortAgora), and Dion van den Berg (senior policy advisor at PAX), all of whom had an important message.

Muhamed, who, as a survivor, was 17 years old when the war started, and 20 years old when Srebrenica fell, shared both his expertise and, more importantly, his personal experience with the devastating effects the ethnic war and genocide continue to have on Srebrenica. He reiterated the importance of continuous involvement of the Netherlands and the international community in Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the threat of a recurrence of the war still exists today. Veerle, whose organisation supports grassroots organisations and local actors in the creation of economic and educational opportunities in Srebrenica, emphasised the necessity and urgency of giving the younger generation hope and a reason to stay. Considering the increasing amount of young people leaving the region in search of better chances abroad, she argued that now might be one of the last chances to convince them to stay in Srebrenica. Finally, Dion argued that the focus should not be on quick wins, easy results or the next elections. Instead, we should make a long-term investment in citizenship; in generations that know how to act as responsible and democratically-engaged citizens.

Even though there are voices in the Netherlands who argue for the closing of the Srebrenica chapter, all of the attendees agreed, we would fail Srebrenica again if we would not make a long-term commitment to the revitalisation of the region. As we are heading towards the 25th anniversary of the genocide of Srebrenica, the question of such a commitment becomes ever more important.